Filed under: movies, music | Tags: cruel intentions, marcy playground, party like it's 1999, sherry fraser, two ton boa
I don’t know why, but I just got out of a rather intense afternoon-long meeting and suddenly felt the urge to listen to the Cruel Intentions Soundtrack. Though definitely a product of its era (also my senior year of high school) it is an awesome compilation and excellent companion to the awesome Dangerous Liaisons-inspired film. And even the Counting Crows song is pretty tolerable!
Marcy Playground always seemed kinda skeezy to me–and Sex And Candy was fucking everywhere for like a full year–but one of my favorite songs on the Cruel Intentions soundtrack is their stompy blues-rock song Comin’ Up From Behind. The song was written by Sherry Fraser, the high school girlfriend of Marcy Playground singer John Wozniak. The third single off Marcy Playground’s self-titled debut was actually called Sherry Fraser, and she performed the song with her own band, Two Ton Boa, who were signed to Kill Rock Stars and therefore by default considerably cooler than her stoner ex ever was.
The Cruel Intentions soundtrack also featured lots of other hits, some of which had been previously released or which were on albums that were about to be released: The Verve’s Bittersweet Symphony, Fatboy Slim’s Praise You, Aimee Mann’s You Could Make A Killing, Placebo’s Every You Every Me, Blur’s Coffee & TV… But my favorite song of all might be the other stompy blues-rock number, after the jump:
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: abstinence-only education, banned books, good writing, insanity, prisons, texas
I spent much of yesterday bemoaning the stupid nitwit who wrote the crappy New York Post piece about the gigolo man. So I thought I would spend today praising two other writers who actually did a good job this week:
There’s been kind of a silly little media frenzy over the past few days about the results of a government-funded study claiming that abstinence-only education actually works. Parenting writer Lylah M. Alphonse at the Boston Globe has a really good response to all the reasons why this is not true, and why people are distorting the study in all kinds of crazy ways. (ie. Telling sixth-graders to wait “until they are ready” is not the same as telling teens to wait until marriage.)
Also, Eric Dexheimer at the Austin American-Statesman deserves some kind of journalism award for his piece about the many, many, many, many books that have been withheld from prisoners in Texas over the last five years. Nothing riles me up more than book banning, but his extensive research–which turns up all kinds of bureaucratic craziness–is really remarkable. (The ban on images of naked children extends back into the Renaissance, for instance. Any naked child–even the Baby Jesus–is forbidden unless he has “clearly visible wings.” Dexheimer’s article is infuriating, but it’s also definitely worth reading if you haven’t already.
[image: Benvenuto Tisi, Le sommeil d'enfant Jesus, 16th c.]
Filed under: music | Tags: garbage, martika, pj harvey, sade, soldiers, the ronettes
Sade’s awesome new single Soldier Of Love has gotten a lot of plays in my house lately. But while searching for it in my iTunes today, the keyword “soldier” brought up four other classic songs, which led to a really great shower sing-along:
Garbage, Soldier Through This
A B-side to lost single You Look So Fine, Soldier Through This demonstrates why Garbage were one of the best things about the 90s. Their songs are perfect at being whatever you want them to be: A lovelorn ballad with romantic piano bits? A late-nineties alternative song about hate? A Greenwich-Barry tribute that’s ready for a girl group cover? A perfect example of that sorta-fruitful period in 1998-99 when every alternative band got a little bit gothtronic? Shirley and Butch made songs that were totally malleable (they’re even kinda-British, kinda-Wisconsinish) and their relentless commitment to awesome pop songs make them one of the best, and one of the most underrated, bands of the nineties.
